In theory, the holy grail of diagnostics is simple: a rapid, universal probe that detects hundreds of pathogens at once, with broad coverage that doesn’t compromise sensitivity, uses small sample volume, doesn’t need long wait times from R&D and manufacturing, and is cheap. In practice, it is much harder.

Melio overturns the traditional one-pathogen one-probe paradigm for infectious diseases, and is able to deploy new diagnostic capabilities “over the air” with a few universal probes. In the future, when a new, unknown pathogen emerges, Melio will be able to develop the detection parameters in San Francisco, and then “push” that update out to the rest of the world to all of their devices that work with their existing cartridges in a manner of minutes, without needing to manufacture and distribute new product lines. With their patented method, they’ll also be able to expedite regulatory approval processes.

The secret sauce can be aptly described like this: Interpreting sequence information without sequencing. Melio’s protected approach will also allow the retroactive surveillance of even unidentified pathogens. Their beachhead market is neonates, where 10% of newborns end up in the NICU, and 99% of them receive precautionary but totally unnecessary antibiotic treatment because it takes days to do the blood culture. Melio is allowing doctors to go from sample-to-result in less than 3 hours.